Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Attendance And Student Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Great Lakes principal reports truancy spike; district outlines attendance interventions
Summary
Great Lakes Elementary Principal Dave Jensen told the board truancy rose from about 8% to about 18% between the 2023‑24 and 2024‑25 school years; district and building teams are deploying truancy letters, parent meetings, PBIS incentives and localized supports to address attendance and related academic declines.
Dave Jensen, the new principal at Great Lakes Elementary, told the board on April 13 that he has observed a positive school climate but also a sharp uptick in truancy: roughly 8% in 2023‑24 to about 18% in 2024‑25. Jensen said the building has a multi‑member truancy team that meets bi‑weekly, sends letters, sets up parent meetings and runs truancy groups aimed at increasing student engagement.
"The truancy rate was right around 8% in 23‑24. 24‑25 that jumped to 18%," Jensen said, and he linked chronic absence to academic effects: a portion of the students with high truancy were performing below proficiency. Jensen described targeted strategies — PBIS celebrations recognizing classroom attendance percentages, grade‑level truancy groups led by the counselor, and outreach to families to address transportation and external resource gaps.
Board members asked whether the barriers are family‑level (transportation, work schedules) or student‑level; Jensen said at the elementary level the barriers often involve parental resources (for example unreliable transportation when a student misses a bus), while at the secondary level absenteeism trends more toward student choice. The superintendent and staff noted coordination with community partners has been harder this year due to turnover in county resource positions.
Why it matters: Increased chronic absence is strongly associated with lower academic performance. The district has already incorporated attendance and truancy interventions into its continuous improvement plans and signaled summer opportunities (including targeted reading interventions) to support at‑risk students.
What comes next: Schools will continue letters, meeting strategies, PBIS incentives, and the district will attempt greater outreach to community partners. The principal and district staff will report attendance and outcome metrics back to the board as the measures proceed.
